Sword Art Online (ソードアート・オンライン) is an action romance anime TV series based on the Japanese light novel series written by Reki Kawahara and illustrated by abec. The anime aired on Tokyo MX, tvk, TVS, TVA, RKB, HBC and MBS between July 7 and December 22, 2012, and on AT-X, Chiba TV and BS11 at later dates.

Sword Art Online Synopsis

The first Virtual Reality game finally released in 2022. By using the newest technology platform called “NerveGear”, players can dive directly into the game just like in the real life. Players can control their avatars using their own thoughts and feel the maximal fun.

But the creator of this technology, Kayaba Akihiko brings the terror to all of the players on the first day of it’s launched. All 10.000 players can not log out anymore. They should complete all 100-floor dungeon with high powerful bosses and monsters. The most dangerous thing is, if they die in the game, they will also die in the real world.

Kirigaya Kazuto, aka Kirito is one of the 10.000 players who trapped inside the game. He meets with his partner Asuna and they try to finish the game.

Agil / Andrew Gilbert MillsSeiyuu: Yasumoto Hiroki
Agil was first seen defending the beta testers from Kibaou who was station that they triggered the 2,000 people to die. He showed Kibaou “Argo’s Strategy Guide: First Floor Boss edition and said that the beta tester weren’t all at fault as they offered everyone free information, which they could obtain free of charge in any NPC shop. during the boss fight, he and his party helped Kirito and Asuna defeat the boss. Agil made his primary store location on the 50th Floor’s city, Algade, and befriend with Kirito. His shop motto is “We buy cheap and sell cheap,” and even though the latter part was usually doubted, he in truth used his income to help players on the lower floor. After Kirito was unveiled to be the second Unique Skill user, Kirito temporarily resided on the second floor of Agil’s store to avoid public attention. After completing SAO, Agil came back to control his shop, Dicey Cafe. His wife could keep the shop from closing during his 2 years of absence. As Asuna hadn’t returned after the completion of SAO, Agil informed a screenshot taken in Alfheim Online of what appeared to be ASuna, tipping Kirito off to her location. Agil offered Kirito a copy of the game, and Kirito was pressed to back to the world of VRMMORPG and save Asuna.

Kayaba AkihikoSeiyuu: Yamadera Kouichi
On the very first day of Sword Art Online’s official service, where around 10,000 players logged into SAO, Kayaba Akihiko successfully trapped the players in the game. After forcefully teleporting all players in the game to the Starting City, he appeared in his GM avatar and during his tutorial explained the new rules of the game, including the undeniable fact that the players would have to conquer all 100 floors of the game to be set free and that death in-game or any try to take away the NerveGear would trigger the NerveGear to fry the user’s brain. To show that the game was their new reality, Akihiko transformed the avatars of all players to appear to be their real life bodies and then took his leave.

SachiSeiyuu: Hayami Saori
Sachi is a side story character in SAO. She is one of the Moonlit Black Cats guild members which was the first guild Kirito joined. Kirito was especially attached to her. Sachi, along with the other members were in a computer research club at their school in real life. However she passed away along with the most her guild members whichi resulted in Kirito wallowing in despair and self-loathing until he listen the time delayed message she left for Kirito on Christmas Eve. Even after the message gave him the strength to live, he never became a member of another guild until he parties with Asuna.

KuradeelSeiyuu: Yusa Kouji
Kuradeel is a two-handed sword uses. Publicly a member of Knights of the Blood and secretly a member of the laughing Coffin, the red guild. He is officially given as Asuna’s bodyguard and despite his grudge grows an obsession with Asuna and starts secretly stalking her everywhere. When he sees that Kirito and Asuna are making deeper relationship, he troubles Kirito to a duel over who can protect her. Kirito wins dna Kuradeel is forced to leave. He later tries to kill Kirito and then Asuna, but is kille by Kirito at the last second instead.

ArgoSeiyuu: Izawa Shiori
Argo is a totally business-focused person, with people stating that she would see her own stats or grandmother for Cor. Despite that, she has been recognized to honor her debts, as was the case with Kirito, saving from the ninja clan. She is so centered on completing her fields manuals that it sometimes gets her into trouble. Argo is eager to sell any information except the lists of SAO beta testers.

SashaSeiyuu: Fujii Kyoko
Sasha is a caretaker of the younger Sword Art Online players who are trapped an reside in Starting City on the first floor.

YolkoSeiyuu: Yamamoto Nozomi
Yolko is one of the Golden Apple guild members and has a relationship with her fellow guild member, Caynz.

YulierSeiyuu: Shiraishi Ryoko
Yulier is a second-in-command of the Liberatino Force Army. She’s devoted to assisting Thinker with his duties as guild master. Thinker married her in real world.

PinaSeiyuu: Izawa Shiori
Pina becomes Silica’s tamed monster through out the series. After Silica got into an argument with her party member Rosalia, she left the party without even taking recovery items with her. She and Pina got lost in the Wandering Fores, where after hours of wandering, they were surrounded by monsters called Drunken Apes. Pina got a fatal blow and meant for Silica and perished. Silica and her temporary party Kirito, visited the “Hill of Memories” on the 47th Floor to get the rare pet revival item, the “Penuma Flower.” After came back to town with the flower, Silica used it and successfully revived Pina.

Alfheim Online

Oberon / Sugou Nobuyuki
Seiyuu: Koyasu Takehito
Sugou Nobuyuki hides his true color, especially in front of Asuna’s father but show his true personality to Kirito when they were left alone. Nobuyuki can be an amoral and greedy businessman, having kidnapped 300 players from SAO for his experiment on manipulating the human mind, which he designed to sell to other companies. Nobuyuki also has a behavior of framing others for his problems, especially Kayaba Akihiko as he thought that he was the source of most of his problems.

Sakuya
Seiyuu: Yahagi Sayuri
Sakuya is the leader of the Sylph. Throughout a meeting with the Cait Sith, she’s attacked by Salamanders led by General Eugene. At the same time, Kirito flies into challenge the general to a duel. After Kirito is victorious the fight, she tries to seduce him to join the Sylphs, but Leafa smothers their efforts, stating that she’s accompanying him to the World Tree. At the end of the arc, Sakuya leads a combined force of Cait Sith and Sylph up against the World Tree’s Guardians so that they can help Kirito with the battle. After Kirito reached the top of the World Tree, she ordered her forces to move back.

Alicia Rue
Seiyuu: Saito Chiwa
During the Cait Sith meeting with the Sylph at the Butterfly Valley, Alicia Rue and the groups were attacked by Salamanders led by General Eugene. Kirito dived directly into save the day and fought off Eugene, even though Kirito had inferior equipment. After the Salamanders left the area and Kirito revealed that he wasn’t working for anyone, Alicia tried to seduce Kirito into coming to the Cait Sith territory and doing work for them, but he declined her offer by saying that he had to visit the World Tree. The next day, along with Sylph reinforcements, she and her squadron of Cait Sith riders, on tamed dragons, helped Kirito’s ascension of the World Tree after using the collected funds to buy armor of at least Ancient grade for all of her forces. After Kirito got through to the top of the tree, she withdrew her forces from the area.

Recon / Nagata Shinichi
Seiyuu: Murase Ayumu
Recon is Suguha’s classmate in real life. He introduced ALO to Suguha who asked him about VRMMO. In ALO, he’s a Sylph dagger wielder and dark mage. He also shows an evident romantic interest in Suguha, although the feelings aren’t shared.

Eugene
Seiyuu: Miyake Kenta
General Eugene intended to disrupt the Cait Sith and Sylph alliance meeting. Earlier, Recon manages to observe the attack and warns Leafa. She and Kirito rush to avoid the confrontation, but Eugene challenges the Spriggan Kirito to a one-on-one duel. At first, Kirito was pressured to guard himself against the onslaught of the Earth-style sword of Eugene, but Kirito can take Leafa’s Katana to prepare for his well known Dual Blades. With this extra blade, Eugene cannot breach Kirito’s defenses and was quickly defeated. After the duel, he is revived by Sakuya and leaves the area with his forces on good conditions. Before the duel, Eugene was considered as the most powerful player in the game.

Others

Kirigaya Midori
Seiyuu: Endou Aya
Midori is Suguha’s real mother, and also Kirito’s adoptive mother and his aunt in real life. She cares for both her children deeply.

Yuuki Shouzou
Seiyuu: Yamaji Kazuhiro
Shouzou is Asuna’s father and the previous CEO of RCT Progress Inc, which goes bankrupt after the company is held in charge of Sugou’s crimes.

Sword Art Online Deep Information

Aniplex released Sword Art Online Blu-ray and DVD between August 13 and November 19, 2013.

Kayaba Akihiko Speech

The Game Master, Kayaba Akihiko made an announcement according to the game:

Sword Art Online Game Master avatar, Kayaba Akihiko

“Attention, players. Welcome to my world. My name is Kayaba Akihiko. As of this moment, I am the sole person who can control this world. I’m sure you’ve already noticed that the logout button is missing from the main menu. But this is not a defect in the game. I repeat… this is not a defect in the game. It is a feature of Sword Art Online. You cannot log out of SAO yourselves and no one on the outside can shut down or remove the NerveGear. Should this be attempted, the transmitter inside the NerveGear will emit a powerful microwave, destroying your brain and thus ending your life. Unfortunately, several players’ friends and families have ignored this warning and have attempted to remove the NerveGear. As a result, 213 players are gone forever, from both Aincrad and the real world. As you can see, news organizations across the world are reporting all of this, including the deaths. Thus, you can assume that the danger of a NerveGear being removed is now minimal. I hope you will relax and attempt to clear the game. But I want you to remember this clearly, there is no longer any method to revive someone within the game. If your Hit Point drops to zero, your avatar will be forever lost.And simultaneously, the NerveGear will destroy your brain. There are only one means of escape, to complete the game. You are presently on the lowest floor of Aincrad, Floor 1. If you make your way through the dungeon and defeat the Floor Boss, you may advance to the next level. Defeat the final boss on Floor 100, and you will clear the game. Right now, you’re probably wondering, “Why?”. Why would Kayaba Akihiko, developer of Sword Art Online and the NerveGear, do all this? My goal has already been achieved. I create Sword Art online for one reason, to create this world and intervene in it. And now, it is complete. This ends the tutorial for the official Sword Art Online launch. Good luck, players.”

Cardinal

The world of Sword Art Online is controlled by a single, immense system. The system is called Cardinal. This system was designed to operate without any human intervention. It regulates the balance of SAO, according to its own discretion. From monster and NPC AI, to drop rates for items and money. Everything is controlled by the processes the Cardinal program executes, even player psychological care. One of them is “Code name: Yui” who acts as Mental Health Counseling Program, prototype 1.

First Boss

According to the one of SAO guide book was issued, it contains information of the boss. According to it, the boss’ name is Illfang the Kobold Lord. He is guarded by assistants known as Ruin Kobold Sentinels. He is armed with an ax and a buckler. He has four health bars, and when the last one enters the red, he switches to a weapon called a No-Dachi. His attack pattern changes, as well.

After the Incident

After SAO incident is over, the three hundred players are still unconscious and become the specimens in VR world called Alfheim Online. Fortunately, the three hundred players who hadn’t escaped SAO had no memory of the experiments performed on them. And no one developed any neurological problems. They say everyone will be able to return to society. However, the VRMMO genre was dealt a fatal blow. In the end, the company named Recto Progress responsible for the incident was disbanded, and Recto itself received a serious setback. Of course, ALO was shut down and five or six other VRRMOs weren’t expected to survive, either.

The Seed

The Seed was created by Kayaba Akihiko, a program package that ran a full-dive MMO. In essence, anyone with access to a good enough server could download The Seed and create their own online world. This revived the dying Virtual MMO genre. ALfheim Online’s data was all transferred to a new company, which still runs it. But ALfheim wasn’t the only world born. Smaller companies and even private individuals began to run their own virtual game servers. They began to be compatible with one another. And it’s reaching the point where a character created in one game can be transferred to another.